Kiss Me Slowly
by Crowned Mer
Summary: After defeating the Brotherhood of Evil alongside the Teen Titans, Jinx is given the chance to become one and a year to decide. Unsure if she's ready for the job, Jinx takes her time to travel the world... and meets a familiar superhero at every turn trying to make up her mind.
1. Chapter 1

**Note:** I do not own _Teen Titans_. Please read and review. I'm quite rusty.

 **Chapter One**

* * *

A single pale finger traced the rim of the coffee cup slowly as the world around her spun to the speed of a beautiful summer day outside the window. The rabble walked, laughed, and went about their day without a care at all; save for those that noticed her, realized who she was, and recalled the chaos she once caused. They kept their distance in fear of what she could do. But, she paid no mind to what the rabble around her, what the common people did or didn't do. They were insignificant. The only thing that mattered to Jinx at the moment was the ostentatious yellow communicator next to the coffee. And what it meant if she were to keep it.

She would be a _Teen Titan_. The term still left a bitter taste in her mouth. The very thought of her becoming something like the goody-goody Teen Titans caused her face to distort into a look of disdain. She wasn't as bad as she once was, but the girl had a hard time picturing herself fighting for the side of good. She only helped the Teen Titans a couple times because it was beneficial for her at the time, not because she was being selfless about it. Besides, it was all too fun then to show what a loss she was to the Brotherhood. She did it for her own selfish wants, and as much as she hated to admit it, she did it for _him,_ too, and at the thought of him, she almost smiled.

"Are you thinking about me, Princess?"

Unconsciously, the pale girl had begun to lean forward with her thoughts; in her position, strangers would even believe she was mooning over something. But upon hearing his voice, Jinx reeled back immediately in her chair with a hiss and a sharp glare. "No! Of course I wasn't thinking about you!" She lied. Of course she denied thinking about him; his ego certainly didn't need the stroking. From what she'd seen, Kid Flash was already cocky enough.

Her answer though didn't cause his smile to falter, but seemed to only make it grow bigger instead. He leaned forward to close some of the distance between them and placed a red gloved hand under his chin, looking at her with his clear blue eyes. "Now that's a lie. You know I've been watching you, and from what I've observed, you make that face whenever you think about me."

She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow skeptically, "Oh? And how would you know that?" She didn't bother to tell him how creepy it was that he was watching her; he would just dismiss it like he did anything else.

"Because after you snap out of those daydreams of yours, you mutter my name under that pretty breath of yours." He winked.

Jinx rolled her eyes in response. Any of the affection she held for him always seemed to quickly dissipate with his presence. The memory was always better than the flesh. "More like I curse you for even putting me in this predicament." One hand gestured disdainfully to the communicator on the table.

The speedster chuckled. "Is it really that hard to figure out? I thought the fight with the Brotherhood of Evil would have cleared things up about that. Jinx, you're good."

"It's not that simple!" The tone of the conversation was instantly dampened by her exclamation. She looked away at the rabble she felt nothing but disdain for. "Being good means taking care of these people, watching out for their wellbeing." _And I don't think I'm ready for that._ The ending thought left a sour note on the girl's mind. Keeping the communicator meant more than just being a Teen Titan, a title she cared very little in holding, but it also meant taking up the mantle as a superhero, for good.

Kid Flash's voice softened and she could almost feel him reach out for her before carefully keeping his hand to himself. "Yeah, it does," he continued slowly, "but it also means people appreciating you. Grateful that you saved their lives, and listening to what you have to say. No one did that when you were a villain, right?"

It was true no one listened to her when she was a villain, not the Hive Five, not the Brotherhood, not anyone. Being appreciate sounded nice; it was what she always wanted. But admitting that, admitting that he was right, even for the smallest bit, was extremely unappealing. "Maybe," she conceded grudgingly.

"Fair enough." He said quietly.

The two sat in their own silence after that, he looking at her, and she looking towards a future she wasn't quite sure she was ready for. It wasn't like him to slow down for too long, and it wasn't like her to be so unsure of herself, but there they were. The atmosphere bubbled between them then, a contradiction of calm serenity and intense apprehension of things unsaid.

Like most things, she chose to break the silence with a few words and a side-glance at the redhead. The dark atmosphere Jinx created made her itch and squirm. Conversations with the Kid Flash always seem to do that lately, get under her skin, and when things became too intense she couldn't handle it; she lashed out against him. "Why are you even here?"

For a moment, she could have almost sworn she caught him off guard, but he quickly, almost too quickly for her eyes to catch, recomposed himself and smiled cheekily at her. "Oh come on now, Sweetheart. You know I can't stay away for long. It's been weeks since our last encounter, and you know how I love our little chats."

"Right, well, if I didn't know any better, I'd swear you're only around to annoy me to death." Though the scene and the experience was always different, the Kid Flash always seemed to be there every few weeks to jump on her last nerve and—

"But you know," the redhead interrupted her thoughts and tapped the communicator, "I can't wait for forever, Princess. Eventually, you're going to have to make a decision."

"What if I haven't quite made up my mind yet?"

"Then you still have seven more months. We did give you a year to decide." He said back, easily.

"What if I choose to be bad again?" It was possible. The worst part about being a villain was that no one cared to listen. That didn't mean she couldn't make it all on her own.

"Then I catch you and throw you in jail."

Jinx narrowed her eyes, "If that was the case, I'd like to see you try."

The redhead let his eyes trail down from the top of her head to the tips of her shoes. "Well, if it ever came to that, I think we'd have fun with it. You and I make quite the twosome."

She crossed her arms and huffed. "As if." She recalled again how the memory was always better than the flesh.

"Don't knock it until you try it." He winked. "I've heard I'm pretty good." He continued suggestively.

Jinx rolled her eyes and stood up, putting the yellow communicator into her pocket without a mention of it. She hadn't made her decision yet. "I'm leaving."

He stood up as well, too quickly for her to see the movement, as per usual, and stood in front of her as she turned to go, stopping her from moving forward. Before she even realized it, her hands were in his. "Look, I didn't mean to make you mad." His expression softened for a moment. "But, trying giving good a chance. You might really like it."

Before she even had a chance to pull out another snide retort from her arsenal, he was gone, leaving only a lingering warmth on her lips and a rose at her feet tied with a written note, saying, 'I'll see you soon.' It was always like that, come and gone in a flash without a word of goodbye. Quite slowly, Jinx leaned down to pick up the rose and held it to her face. The scent overwhelmed her senses momentarily before she walked out, throwing it in the trashcan on the way out. That trick was great before, but after a few times, it grew tiring.

"Maybe if he'd actually stay for the kiss, we'd get somewhere." The girl shook her head before heading out to her next wandering.

Sometime between glancing out at the beautiful summer day and her focus on the Kid Flash, rain clouds had gathered, and now, were ready for release. The rain began to pour as Jinx took her first step outside. Just her luck.


	2. Chapter 2

**Note:** Thank you so much for those of you who read and reviewed! It was extremely heartwarming to see how many of you there were. On another note, thank you thank you so much for those of you who waited nearly a month for the second chapter. Life got ahead of me with my move and other issues, but I'm hoping to update more regularly. So without further ado, enjoy the newest chapter, and once again, I don't own the Teen Titans, just in case you forgot.

 **Chapter Two**

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As the people skittered from one awning to the next in hopes of avoiding the rain, Jinx trudged through it, water splashing with every step of her boots. It was a moot point for her to escape the rain; bad luck tended to follow her. If she chose to run under an awning, there was a great chance a rusted part would finally give way and fall with the weight of the water onto her petite form. Or, if by some chance she happened to carry an umbrella, the wind would lose no haste in blowing it back. No, it was better to just trudge through the bad luck and let the water soak her to the bone until she got to where she wanted to go.

Walking down this avenue and that parkway, Jinx made her way through more blocks than she cared to recall until she came across her destination. Laughably nestled between skyscrapers in a shadier part of the downtown metropolitan area was her destination, the bus depot. Graffiti covered the old brick walls of the building, offering garish color to the faded background, and even in the rain, the homeless huddled outside its walls with the carts they couldn't bring inside. Despite the rain and the slight chill it brought with it, summer did its part and brought humidity like a blanket to make up the difference.

Jinx ran a hand through her wet and deflated locks to push it out of her face and walked inside. The interior matched the exterior with its peeling paint, dripping roof, and lack of interesting people. It wasn't like any of it mattered anyways. The fact of the matter was it was a place to get her where she wanted to go, and could get her there cheap.

Water slid off her form and trickled to the stained linoleum floor as she rapped cold knuckles against the cracked glass to get the disheveled man behind its attention. He scratched his distended belly and gave her the smallest of glances over his "People" magazine before dully saying, "What do you want?"

She fished out a soggy twenty and laid it in the metal dip pushing it towards him. "I want the earliest bus ticket to San Francisco."

The man put down his magazine with a slap to the counter and pulled for the bill giving her a disdainful up and down. "I'm going to need more than this, girl. It's twenty-five."

She raised an eyebrow and pulled a five out of her pocket, pushing it towards him. But, as he touched the bill, she pulled it back, causing him to pause and glare at her. "I hope you realize that I'm letting you take advantage of me because I _know_ the price for the ticket is twenty."

The man flushed and was ready to snarl at her, to tell her she could take it or leave it, but as she let go of the extra bill, that desire bubbled down to nothing but simmering attitude as he shoved her ticket forward with a grumble of, "Bus boards in a half hour."

Jinx walked away from him and the derogatory term muttered her way and turned towards the door to wait outside away from greater depot population's noise and stares. The rain seemed to have stuttered into a drizzle while she had been inside, and the girl watched it from her spot against the brick wall.

A half hour would go by quickly enough. She could let her mind wander, think of the few fond memories she had of childhood with her fictitious unicorn, Skittles. It would help her relax, lose the pensive edge that a certain visitor brought with him while she was trying to kill time with a cup of coffee, she could—

"Excuse me," an old homeless woman interrupted her thoughts, after who knows how much time had passed, with a pull at her sleeve. Looking at her, Jinx realized she had never seen someone so small, unless she counted Gizmo.

After looking at the woman for a moment, Jinx turned her attention to a scuff on her shoe. "Look lady, I don't have any money for you."

The old woman chortled a bit and placed a firmer hand on Jinx's arm. "Oh no, Dear, I don't want your money." The old woman smiled up at Jinx and continued with a pat to that arm she attached herself to. "I just wanted to thank you."

She raised a quizzical eyebrow and said slowly, "Thank me for what?"

What she said next caused Jinx to freeze and consciously touch the yellow communicator she had forgotten about, if only for a moment. The woman had a momentary look of confusion before gently speaking. "Why, for saving the city so often. You are a Teen Titan, are you not? I just wanted to say thank you for making the streets safer for us is all. I know you have a lot on your plate with the bigger stuff of this city, but, thanks for taking care of the riffraff too. It's much appreciated."

Everything after the words "Teen Titan" went unheard as Jinx searched for some way to reply, to tell her no, that she wasn't a Teen Titan, and in fact, up until a little while ago, she was a part of the problem the Teen Titans took care of.

Slowly, Jinx disengaged herself from the woman and backed up towards where the buses gathered for boarding. She couldn't be sure, but words may have been muttered under her breath, some lame excuse of she had to go, or she that the woman had the wrong idea, something. It didn't matter, before she knew it, Jinx was gone, quickly finding her bus and handing her ticket to the driver and finding a spot, shivering in her soaked clothes, trying not to get noticed.

As others lumbered on the bus, finding seats of their own for the hours long drive, Jinx placed her hand against the window and waited for Jump City to become just another city, a blimp on the map. She was over people knowing what the precious Teen Titans were, over people mistaking her as hero, because she wasn't one, and a part of her definitely didn't want to be. But, looking out the window and catching a glimpse of red and yellow between a single blink, she couldn't help wishing she did.


End file.
